Dai Dai Tran is a visual artist, based in Paris, whose work focuses on reinterpretation of codes and portraiture.

The bizarre works Dai Dai Tran, in particular, his multiple images and visual puns, transforms powerful and worldwide symbols into detailing pieces of art. His manner of work consists in adapting pre-existing resources to create uniquely engaging works of art.

His latest approach consists in meticulously cutting up currency and using it as art supplies.

This latest series of work uses the iconic dollar bills and as well as international currencies - he uses its group of symbols to create intricately detailed works. Dai Dai transforms pieces of bills into stories, critiques and concepts that comment on money and today’s society.

Through Dai Dai’s work the ordinary object relives as a material of assembly: this new existence denies its utilitarian value and gives it a critical and poetic significance. Once removed from its domestic context it provides a transition between life and work.

Through the use everyday objects, questions are raised about the place of the object in the visual arts production and cast a critical eye on the banal consumption. It is the processes of diverting these objects to create a personal piece accompanied by an underlying message.

The greenback fascinates Dai Dai for many reasons, visually; he considers it a work of art, some pieces resume natural intellectual wealth and poetry that is extracted from the culture of a country; one of the most beautiful color palettes, representing the global economy.

Dai Dai Tran uses real banknotes, sometimes, are no longer in circulation, are no longer produced or those that continue to be exploited. Their conditions vary, new notes being the strongest basis to be reworked.

Generally, the bills testify to the economic power of a country, its didactic side traces the history of a country, highlights the artistic benefactors, intellectuals, political, scientific and social. Harnessing the complexity of overlapping illustrations but form a harmonious visual consistency can be used to clip the bill for its illustration qualities and place them in a dream world, or to obtain shades to immerse the viewer in a work created from scratch. The wealth of detail, without counting those that are perceived secrets: watermark, hologram, embossed ...

The search for these bills ahead of their artistic work requires a lot of patience, curiosity, organization ... a quest for rare coins, a real treasure hunt.

In clinical precision, the scalpel allows meticulously cut out the smallest details, to obtain a cut with unparalleled finesse. The sensitivity of Dai Dai is fully expressed through this instrument. This work requires observation, detail, reflection, research to improve a technique that requires great patience and commitment.

The use of these bills is inscribed in our collective memories, highlighting certain nostalgia, a trip, a time, a purchase that commemorates souvenirs. Dai Dai highlights an object that passes from hand to hand for its use value and on which we will stop to observe rarely; or only in a technical manner to ensure that it is true or false.

Highlight the ambiguous relationship between art and the economy, and how these two disciplines come together consistently and empirically; this is the message of Dai Dai Tran.